Submitted by: Submitted by rydeit
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Category: World History
Date Submitted: 10/16/2012 07:43 PM
“To what extent were disagreements about the post-war future of Germany and Eastern Europe responsible for the beginning of the Cold War?”
“It is clear that the United States cannot expect in the foreseeable future to enjoy political intimacy with the Soviet regime. It must continue to regard the Soviet Union as a rival, not a partner, in the political arena." (Quoted by Kennan on Drezner.com, 2005) This was cunningly stated by Kennan in his ‘long telegraph’ in 1946. It is to a large extent that the disagreements of post war Germany and Eastern Europe were responsible for the start of the Cold War. While the arguable future of Germany, discussed at conferences such as Yalta and Potsdam, certainly aided towards arguments encouraging war, the ideological differences were also a significant factor. The USA’s fear of Soviet communist expanding throughout Europe and the disagreements at post-war conferences left America with no choice but to retaliate with means such as the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid.
Ideologically the western countries and Russia had a distinctive difference in political power and they opposed each other’s forms of government. The United States promoted capitalism and democracy as people had the right to vote, the right to free speech and the right of the press (Adams, 2001). However, Russia since the 1917 revolution had been a communist run country, the people of Russia were disenfranchised of any powers to choose their government and people were executed and jailed for opposing the communist way of life (Adams, 2001). Capitalism and Democracy were a direct contradiction to what the communist Russians believed in, which was the ways of Karl Marx. This incompatibility between the two nations was highlighted in 1946 when Stalin gave a speech concerning the incompatibility of capitalism and communism. His words were interpreted to mean that war was inevitable, heightening the sense of conflict between the Soviet Union and the USA (Robert, 2007)....